This ONE Event made Us feel less CRAZY (For Farming)

Justin Rhodes.

I would not sit on those seats.

Oh, that's right.

You need to get it. I wouldn't have it anywhere near me. Do I have anything in my teeth?

Oh, you do.

Like this.

Can't do that. I just can't. You can't whistle loud, I can't do that.

Okay, well then you must have something in your teeth.

Are you sure? I'll just go floss.

It's not that bad. Okay, are you sure?

Sure, sure it's bent. Okay, I lose it.

Can you see?

I disappear. Can't lean back slightly. Look, the legs are bent. I'm just gonna hang on to your chair.

Sure that you can be seen here?

Let me just make sure. Okay, yeah, make sure I can be seen. See if my big head doesn't dominate.

It's not, it's not focused. Oh, there we go. It just focused.

You have to tilt it down because it's picking up on the light behind me. You have to point the lens down. Well, it began with a 3:30— was it 2:30, 3:30 morning phone call? And when the phone rings at 2:30 in the morning It can't be good. You think it's some family emergency. I couldn't get there in time, and I heard a message saying our flight had been canceled because of the hurricane. It was Hurricane Michael. Yes. And so I just went back to bed and just figured we'd rent a car in the morning.

So I said, well, what was that? And he said, our flight's canceled. And then of course my wheels start turning. So finally I was like, maybe I should get up and look it up. I called back. So I talked to the lady and she gave us lots of options. We could get a full refund or we could take this earlier flight that would leave at 5:45 AM. And so now it's like 3:15-ish. I didn't— I was— my plan was to wake up early and finish packing. So I was like, oh boy, you know, I still have a lot to do, rush around and get ready. And so that's just what we did. We made the decision to get on that 5:45 flight.

The first flight though, we are— it's like pouring rain. You nervous, Becky? You did pretty good compared to your— I know. Alaskan flight.

I'm nervous because we're in Alaska and Hawaii. Life vests all located on the seat. I'm hopeful that it won't be bad, but I'm just—

Doesn't help that it's raining, right?

Yeah, I think it's just scary because I don't know what it's gonna be like.

And our later flight got canceled because I guess they figured it was just gonna get worse, so we were gonna beat the storm. So what was that first flight like?

So the first flight was awful. It was— the pilot came on and said this is gonna be a bumpy ride.

Before it took off.

Enjoy. Just sit back and enjoy.

No, he said this should be fun. I know. That's what this young, probably 25-year-old pilot said.

It was scary. I was like, I looked at Justin and I was like, I think I want to get off the airplane.

That might be something that you say at Six Flags before you go on the roller coaster.

Yeah, it was not fun. I was scared to death. And then, you know, the anticipation of what does that mean? Like, as the pilot is saying this, he has experience. Yeah, I don't have experience of flying in the edges of a hurricane.

She nearly beat me up, y'all. Held both hands leaning against me so hard my ribs were sore at the end. Gotta watch out, she would pinch me and grab my ring finger and just pinch the ring in the other finger.

Yeah, at one point it was funny because I was like really scared and then he's like, um, I need my hand back.

So that was a little flight from Asheville to Charlotte. Fortunately it was only like 25 minutes. It was, it was only 25 minutes.

How was it, Beck?

It was insane.

It was crazier than anything I've ever experienced. I think the anticipation of knowing the pilot told us it was going to be bumpy, and then that was when I was like, I want off this airplane now.

You gonna be alright? Flight number 2?

I don't know, I feel really sick.

Papa and Mama have glass and I'm about to do the chores. But it's raining. So. I'll need to put this waterproof camera on this and you won't be able to hear. I'll have to do a narration. Me and Desa woke up this morning and it was raining. We had breakfast, then we went outside to do the chores. We got the grain. We went and fed the pigs and chickens. And then we went to the guineas and then we went to the ICs and we moved them and we let them out and we fed them their water. And then we came back inside and here we are.

What was the flight like from Charlotte to Baltimore? I figured, I thought it was better because it was such a big plane. It was still bumpy.

It was, it was a lot better, but so when I booked our flights, I purposefully booked us towards the front of the airplane because it's less bumpy up there, but because we were rebooked and like the computer just booked us, we were literally in the back of the airplane with both flights. So I was like— It was a lot better than the first one. We— and if it's just on the up and down, I can handle it. It's just when it's like— it was literally the entire time with the first flight, so that was a little bit scary.

When we arrived, we got to our rental car. Apparently with rental cars, you can reserve a car and it not be there, but we worked it out and ended up getting a nice upgrade. Look, they upgraded us because they didn't have our car to an Escalade.

It's not an Escalade. Okay, Cadillac.

It's a Tahoe. Dork. And then we headed to our Airbnb. We're here. Can't seem to escape the rain though. Nice. Look at this little cottage.

Isn't it cute?

And this place is great for relaxing. That night Now we're without kids. We went to bed at 7:30. Is that right? Didn't wake up till like 6:30 or didn't get out of bed anyway.

Yes.

11 hours, y'all.

It was glorious. We were so tired.

What?

Y'all see that? How beautiful. First full day without the kids. Even though this is work, it kind of feels like vacation. It feels like fall out there, Beck. So some things never change. We're having greens.

Yep.

An animal for breakfast. Eggs and bacon.

Eggs and bacon and greens and fruit.

So we tried to do something we really never do, and we tried to binge watch some movies. We didn't even make it through the first episode of The Long Way Down. I know, it's only 50 minutes long. We made it to like 40 minutes. We were gonna watch all those for her.

We were so tired. We were so tired, so we got up and made lunch— we made dinner, and then we went to bed.

We went to bed at 7:30.

We're about to go do chores, and it's really cold outside, so me and Josiah got on a lot of our fur clothes. See? I have pajama pants under them, and Josiah's just wearing my sweater and another sweater.

Found.

It is cold out here. Josiah's gonna go feed his chickens first, and I'm gonna go start on the grain. Killed some flies. Now we're gonna move the ICs, feed them, and water them. And if they have water, they might have some, so we might not have to use the water that Papa brought out here.

So we're feeling rested and ready to go.

Yeah.

Riverfront property here, Beck.

I know, man. What are we doing with our lives?

We're heading to the event now. Our talk isn't until— when's our talk? 11?

I think 11.

It's 9-ish. I get a little nervous. Yeah, it's a little nerve-wracking talking in front of people. The only thing that gets me through it is I remind myself that it's not about me. I'm here to serve others and it doesn't really have to be nerve-wracking to be a servant. Like somebody to like pick up the dishes or cook, it's not a nerve-wracking job. So I just have to remember that's what I'm here to do is to provide valuable content. It makes me feel a little bit better, but you never do completely get over over it, spoke many times. It never goes away, does it? Just gotta embrace that awkwardness and fear.

Yep.

When we go to the event the next morning, we didn't know what to expect. Thought it was going to be inside, thought it was going to be smaller key, but there were tons of people there, probably over 1,000 people there. There is a ton of people right here right now. I did not expect this, really. Look, I gotta go speak in that barn. Can you see me shaking? I'm nervous. It's hold. 10 minutes. We had some technical difficulties. Remember, remember, we're just helping people plan their best homestead ever. Here it goes. You know, I was kind of expecting it to be maybe like Mother Earth News but much smaller. And, uh, you know, some people know us, but it seemed like everybody knows us. And it was great. It was great to reunite with people, and it gave us an energy. And going into my talk, I'm nervous. You know, I thought I was going to be speaking in front of 50 people. I was nervous. And then there was like 300 people out there ready learn about permaculture and how they can make their best homestead ever.

Uh, Premier One— Premier One is one of our sponsors, so if y'all would give a big round of applause for Premier One. Very, very honored and excited to have them.

So we're a small farm company out of central Iowa or southeastern Iowa. We specialize in sheep and goat supplies, electric fencing, poultry supplies, a little bit of everything. Justin Rhodes. And can plant plants to prevent erosion. You guys might think it's a lie if you don't public speak, but you really can feel an energy from a crowd.

Yeah.

If you say a slight joke and everybody laughs real good, it's like, yeah, that's a good energy. And we got that from this crowd.

Well, and they were, they were just really like— when I came in, everybody was like really ready to like listen and engage with you.

Yeah.

From audience perspective.

It felt like I was giving a presentation to family.

Yeah.

And in a way I was. And so I was thankful for it. I can give it to you in digital format. I'll give it to you for free. It's down in the link in the show notes. It was such a good vibe and we were meeting so many cool people, we just ended up skipping lunch and we walked around for a bit and saw the vendors. Why are you so excited about that?

Because I've wanted to do this. We did this in Alaska. I'm gonna get this one, the pillar candles.

What's your name and what are you doing?

I'm Christina and I sell beekeeping supplies and bees. And since you have soap making and all that, I thought I'd start soap making stuff as well.

Nice.

So is this your white beeswax or do No, it's American. It's Brushy Mountain. I'm a Brushy Mountain dealer.

Okay.

And I bought gifts for the kids and my mom and dad and me.

So much so we can barely shut our suitcase.

I bought a little too many things, but I was real— I really enjoyed going through the vendors and seeing what was available, and it was fun. Like, we just— it was, again, like, there's a good energy just in general. Yeah, it's a good energy about even the vendors. Like, they were excited to be there.

Do you like that?

Yeah.

Do you like this one, this one, or this one, or this one? This one says, and so together they built a life they loved.

That one for sure. Well, eventually hunger dominated that, and we had to go. We're leaving after a long day Actually, we were gonna go away and eat lunch.

I know, that didn't happen.

But it was just so fun talking to everybody that it's now 5:00 and like, we were gonna be eating dinner about right now. So we just hung in there, didn't we? We're gonna have to eat lunch and dinner at the same time. Yeah. Can we do that? How was my talk?

I think you did great.

Are you partial?

No, I feel like you were very clear and articulate and Like—

Yeah. There was only a few moments I lost my train of thought, but you know, this crowd was— this crowd was amazing. They had a good energy. Really, as a public speaker, I've done it a lot.

I couldn't tell that you lost your train of thought.

Okay, good.

So.

And we had a nice restful evening making a dinner, eating, going to bed early.

Again. Yeah.

We've— we tried both nights to do some binge watching. We're not really binge-watching people because we have kids, but yeah, we tried. We tried to watch, failed miserably. We could barely get through a 15-minute show.

I know, by the end we were like keeping one eye open.

So it was cold that first day, and actually we shivered the whole time. So the second day we said we got to get some coats. Here we are, because we left, we got to go to the department store because fall has come. All of a sudden.

Department store?

Yeah.

Target.

You gonna plug Target? Okay, plug Target. Target. Embrace the Target. We're going into Target to get coats because they actually— because of they forwarding our flight, we had to rush out of the house and forgot our coats.

Yeah, and I was freezing yesterday.

I'm like, yeah, I was shaking the whole time. We don't need to get sick, Beauty.

I know. I'm like, we just got—

and we need to be comfortable to be able to talk to folks and everything.

So we're gonna buy jackets.

And the people here are so kind, aren't they? Yes. Everybody's so talkative and friendly.

Amy gave me that green sweatshirt because I was shivering.

Yes. So we want to hang out with these people without distraction. Okay, let's do it. How do we do this?

Well, men's department's down there.

Okay.

But I feel like I need to help you.

Can't get my other jacket. It's that I would do it much too fast, right?

No, you wouldn't.

You wouldn't take out a good jacket. Okay, okay, okay.

I'm trying not to be mean, but it's true.

You just got to say how it is. Is that puffy enough for you, Rebecca? I guess. Well, that looks good. I like black. She asked me if I like black or gray. Beautiful one can pull off any of the How about that? Would that have been a better answer? I think so. I answered that too quick. A man's supposed to say, "Oh, just whatever," because it could be a trap. You look beautiful in everything, Beauty.

Thanks.

Are you really already wearing this?

Well, I was just gonna wear it.

Okay, okay. Men's section.

Here we go.

Ah, I see you're sticking with the denim. That one's sharp looking. That's interesting. Wow, the safari look. I don't know, how's this one look? Kind of lean towards this one. Here's bigger ones. I have big ones at home.

Okay, so look at yourself in the mirror.

Yeah, that looks pretty good. Or that one. That one looks nice too. What do you think?

Whatever you want.

Oh boy. Okay, bye-bye to that one. Although it's a little warmer, a little nicer, it is also double the money.

Yeah, it's double the price.

$80 versus $40. So I'll be happy with the 40.

We decided to go down to do the chores for the last time. We're going to get the grain now. She started on the ICs while I went and fed the guineas. Doing a pretty good job. Why is it so heavy? That's because the kickstand is not put off. Finished moving the ACs. Time to go inside.

And we head back to the event. We strategically planned it— don't kill us, don't kill us— but to walk around while Joel Salatin was talking. Is it a sin that we're— is it a farming sin that we're walking right by? No, because we want a chance to see the booths.

We want to talk to some people.

We love talking to our fans. Yes, and our people. But now's the time when they're all in there, we can do the booth, and then we can give our fans all our time right before our talk and after our talk. Let's go. It's probably a garden fence to keep out rabbits and then to keep out deers. That's my bet. That's my bet. Hey Joe, how's it going? It's going well. Good intro yesterday.

Thank you.

It's going to be very similar today too. Yeah, and he acted like I didn't remember him.

Oh really?

You had coffee at my house. I made you Bulletproof coffee that night. I had a beard then. That's where I was going. What happened to the beard? It got short. Okay, so Joe, we had a bet. What's this this fence for? That is VersaNet 60, and that is for around gardens. That's what I said. Yep. Deer and little critters, little rabbits. Okay, cool. Well, if it weren't for this kind of fence— I've been using it for, gosh, 10 years. Really? Please don't tell me you've only been around for 8. I have been around for 8. Premier's been around for 40 years. So it's been 10 years, and I couldn't do what I do without it.

First time he was We were just talking about you guys.

Am I a gardener? Yeah. Again, good speech yesterday. Thank you. Good speech.

Hey, nice meeting you. And I was like, no, these two actually really organically garden.

Yeah, we were just talking about how, um, because yesterday we were talking about like, I don't have anything against farmers, but the problem is so many farmers aren't doing the right things, you know, and they're not being stewards of the land like they should be. And that's why I'm such a firm believer, and I like, I've seen so much on your channel It's— you're talking about like scaling, taking the home setting and scaling it up to a farm, not taking the farm and scaling it down. Because all you're doing is just— you're, you're teaching so many people that might be just starting a garden. Yeah, like you're telling them to spray their crops with all these pesticides and herbicides, and it's like the solution is, is what nature's already given us. Yeah, and I just think it's so, it's so important to, to I just wanted to make that known, you know, that I don't have an issue with farmers. I just wish more would do what we're trying to promote. The things that I find are the most exciting is like before I'm going to bed and I had a long day, I'll watch your videos or when I need a recharge. 'Cause like, I don't know if people, maybe people, yeah, people have probably told you this. Maybe, probably, yes, people have definitely. Your attitude on life is so amazing. And it's the same like every day I wake up, if you don't try to make your day like as good as possible, even if your day started out bad, like finding something to be positive about can totally change the outlook of your day. And I just think so many people don't take that mentality into their day and I see it on your channel all the time and that's what's so addicting.

Am I a gardener, y'all? Roots and Refuge. I'm more just a baby. Yeah, I'm more— Does your momma know where you are? I'm out past my bedtime.

1, 2, and 3. One more time. 1, 2, and 3.

Hey again, Joel.

Hey Justin, good to see you.

Hi, how are you?

Okay, good. All your travels?

Yes, we think about you often.

You guys, you guys just are everywhere. I run into people all the time. You have such a big following.

We do.

And you have such a winsome way, just a winsome way to present.

We didn't set out to do that, but it just happened. It's a blessing.

It is, it really is. It's wonderful. And people all all over.

It's one—

it's really great. I mean, isn't it wonderful to just stumble into something you have a knack for, but you didn't even know you had a knack for?

And you love it.

I think about you, like, like, you are great at farming, but you also are great at speaking and writing books. That's content creation. Well, we found this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's a blessing.

It is, it is.

Really, others could do that, to be really fair.

Yeah.

Yeah, so good. We appreciate you for that inspiration. Yeah, to do it right.

Yeah, we don't have to smoke here, right? So you can taste it and then you and your wife can talk and you can be like, ah, it's a little bit too salty, because it might be for your palate, but you're always going to stay between 2 and 3%.

And then you can always get it once you get—

yeah, but over, over a couple bellies, you and your wife will say, you know, maybe the meat master.

Andy himself.

You will have over maybe 4 or 5 bellies. This is sausage from our dry curing workshop.

It's just trim.

We were doing nice prosciuttos and things like that, and all the trim work we, we ground up last night and mixed up some sausage so we'd have lunch today.

This is, uh, Doug, I think. I don't recognize him without the big burly beard.

A few moments, we're gonna walk over there with with a.410 shotgun.

You coming back?

No, I'm incognito.

And you have that long hair. Did you have long hair before? No.

Okay, I'm a man of many looks.

What's the change?

It's a new season.

Shove some more in your mouth.

That's so good.

It's so good. A mouthful of fresh pork. Is this from your farm?

It is, yeah. We did a workshop on Thursday. We cured the entire animal. Okay, and we had a couple pounds of leftover trimmings from the prosciutto that we seasoned and made up into these delicious sausages.

Nice. What's up with the knives? Are these your favorite knives, or are these your knives?

I just keep shoving food in my mouth.

Keep on, I like it. That's what it's about.

Uh, these are some of the knives we work with. These are knives from a friend of ours, Nathan Malenke. He's a professor of literature down here at James Madison University. Okay, and then on his breaks, he's up at his folks' farm near, near us in his dad's blacksmith studio, building, making these gorgeous, gorgeous knives.

Are you selling these?

So he's super bashful, he doesn't, he doesn't like to move in his own product. And we said, look, we're coming down to do a workshop, but the next 2 days we're just hanging out in a tent. Why don't we put some of your knives out?

Moving some?

Yeah, we've sold 7 so far.

So why are those not good for butchering like these are?

No, this is more of a kitchen knife, more of a chef's knife. This is what you would want to chop things with. You were going to make a chili or something and you want to do lots of chopping, this is what you would want to use this for. I would not want to break down an animal with this knife, but I wouldn't want to chop up vegetables with this one. So, okay.

Yeah, so we had 2 more talks the second day. I was just as nervous. You were real nervous because you were going to speak too. But first, the first one was pretty laid back. We were going to be on a panel with the other speakers where folks could ask us questions. So Rebecca, it's 10 minutes till the panel. Okay, are you getting nervous?

Yes. Okay, very nervous.

You ever spoke in front of this many people?

No.

Okay, we're going to the panel, Becky. We're going up to the panel. Are you nervous? There's a lot of people out there, Becky. Okay, you ready?

Yeah.

Big Bear Homestead. Okay, nice to meet you. And then it was our time to give our talk on the Great American Farm Tour and what we learned. And I remember people came to meet us right before that talk, and one question one guy had is, Rebecca, gonna talk at this next one? Because they love you so much. And I think it went well.

Yeah, and I mean, it was a Great American Farm Tour, so we obviously did that together.

Tell that story.

And, um, yeah, so I felt pretty confident in obviously being able to tell the story.

And ultimately it came down to— and we challenged people to— sometimes we think grass is greener on the other side, but ultimately what we discovered in traveling across America and seeing other farms is finding great contentment in homesteaders across America. Whether it's -60 in Minnesota or 3 inches of rain in Arizona, people are generally happy where they are. And we can be too, and you can be too. And whether it's a pot on your, your porch, yeah, or a 100-acre ranch, it's the best farm in America because it's under your control. Yeah. And then afterwards, one of our favorite things to do, we just sat out there and just talked with people and just did a up. Go on down.

Hi, I'm Kristen.

Okay, nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

This is my husband Steven. I'm Steven, nice to meet you.

We started following you on Kickstarter. He found you guys, and then we started following you on Instagram. It's complicated figuring out those steps.

You just go slow, you start small.

Yeah.

And if you— if he works and he likes that, or you can develop an entrepreneurial spirit. Yeah. And in entrepreneurship, you work hard you take bigger risks and you can discover even bigger rewards. And the entrepreneurial step can create even more freedom. And meat chickens are one of the quickest, easiest ways to do that.

Yeah, and you guys just do Cornish hens?

Yeah, we do Cornish Cross. I mean, like, what's Joel Salatin's book on that? Pasture Culture Profit? Okay. I mean, do what he does.

Do exactly what he does. The blueprint's there.

Do his formula to a T. He already made all the mistakes. Yeah, don't try to make any more mistakes. You know, don't try to do something different, just do what he does.

We've been traveling full-time in an RV with my two kids and wife, looking for a place that we're gonna settle down.

We sold everything back home in Utah. Property's just super expensive back there. Like, I know you're sitting there wherever you are, but when you're in our situation and you literally can go anywhere, there's time.

What would you guys What would you suggest? Western North Carolina, an hour out of Asheville.

I said he saw you from yesterday.

When we go home, I'm gonna ask him if we weren't afraid— I love it.

What else would we grow?

Well, I wasn't afraid.

I like it.

They're not only your children, they're your friends.

They are.

And the way they follow you and help you, and yet they're their own personalities.

Did you go to school for, um, like making videos? Yeah. No. So how'd you just learn?

She just took a— we watched other good YouTubers and just kind of learned technique. And then we— she, she got for Adobe Premiere, which is software we use to edit, she got a course and she learned it in 4 hours. Really? And she taught me how to do it. Just keep getting better.

It is tiring, but it is so good just to stand and talk and look into the people's eyes who watch our show. And we just had— I always had a really great time doing that.

Hello.

Hey, what's your name?

Josh.

Josh. Hello, Dana.

How's it going?

Good.

Good firm handshake.

I know.

Just wanted to thank you all for the inspiration. From— we went from, what, 4 chickens to now like 50 plus animals. 60 animals to 3 cows, turkey, geese.

Do you milk a cow?

No, they're beef.

Angus.

Angus. We actually do have a handshake. We have goats, Nigerian Dwarfs.

And do you milk those? Are you milking any animals?

They will be when we breed them. It'll be when they go into milk. You say we will. Will you both get out there? Yeah, that's the plan. Okay, it's a group effort. Yeah, she says we a lot, but sometimes she means you. Yeah. And thank you very much for filming, taking over the vlog for us. Appreciate it. I appreciate that. Tell the folks your channel and what you're about. 180 Degrees from Average, and we basically bought the family farm from my parents. Been in the family for 120 years. So wait, you are 180 degrees from average? You're crazy. We are. We're all crazy together. Minnesota. Minnesota crazy. Crazy. That's right, Minnesota crazy. All right, thanks for doing that.

Yeah, and we're super grateful that people stand in line to talk to us. Like, it was a pretty long line for a while.

You know, the people at the end be like, oh, fine, you know, just one more. We meet one more. Of course, you're just as special as the very first one. We love and appreciate that so much. Eventually, I mean, most people were gone, and finally I didn't want to leave. We didn't want to pull ourselves away, but again, we had to eat, go to sleep. What we cooking tonight, babe? More meat and veggies, of course.

Yeah, we've got caramelized onions happening, lamb burgers. I got broccoli and kale in here together.

Yeah, you know, it was hard to leave today. It's such a good group. It feels like— it feels like family, and it's It's just real. It's, it's, it's— I don't know, everybody's— I've never been at a conference like that before. Have you? Like, we go to the Mother Earth News, and it just doesn't feel like so close-knit. Yeah, it felt very close-knit.

It did.

It was fun.

And we didn't want— I didn't want to leave. We could probably 8, 9 hours talking to people. But we love meeting you guys. We love meeting who we're talking to.

Yeah.

And, uh, We're gonna have our meat and veggies. A little trick here though is— have y'all got— have y'all ever had caramelized onions? Onions apparently have sugar in them. You cook them long enough, they brown like this and they become absolutely delicious. So we're having lamb burger, 100% grass-fed lamb, caramelized onions, bacon, kale for the side.

And broccoli's in there.

And broccoli's in there. Are you getting tired?

I'm so tired.

My eyes are starting to hurt. And then we have a, uh, I'm not— that's not what I'm supposed to say. You're so beautiful even if you're so tired.

That was hilarious.

I guess I'm getting tired too. Slip of the tongue there. How's it, Beck?

It's deli— the veggies were delicious. I haven't had meat yet.

Did I cook it too much? It's hard without a thermometer.

I know. I'm really tired, so it's delicious. I'm gonna eat it and go to bed.

Okay. Well, it's not very far from right there to there.

I know, it's great.

Just crawl right in. What did you learn from, from this event? If you could only say one thing— to communicate to these guys who maybe weren't there, how can you sum up the experience?

I don't think that— I think that the one thing is, is that get to a homesteading event, whether it's Homesteaders of America, which we had a great time at, or another homesteading event that's maybe closer to you. When you are in an event like that and you're meeting all these people and they all are trying to do the same thing that you're trying to do, which is grow your own food, it's— there's just an energy that you can't describe. And so I think that get to a homesteading event and, and be around people like you who are doing with you. And you may have that in your own community. You may have enough homesteaders in your area that you feed off of it. But I know for Justin and I, you know, for so long we just had one friend that did this. And then, you know, now obviously we have a lot more, and that's great, and I love it.

Spread out.

Yes, they are spread out. It's not like we have to make an effort, right? So make an effort to get to a homesteading event, whether it be Homesteaders of America or another one.

You, you may feel lonely and inept, and your normal friends and family may think you're crazy, and that can, no matter how hard you fight it, can rub off whether you know it or not. And so it's So it's good to hang out with like-minded people. The internet's great. It brings us all together. We wouldn't know each other if it wasn't for it. But we can also use the power of technology to bring ourselves together, to find events like this, to create events like this, and just get together and feed off each other. It felt like a family reunion of folks we didn't know.

Yeah.

A lot of people knew us, but now we know them. Mm-hmm. But I think others were feeling that vibe. It wasn't just the speakers.

Yes.

Okay, that's it. All right, Rebecca, we have 3 more minutes to check out. You want to do a polar plunge? We showed Jonah the lake and he said— you showed him that pond back there and he said, you've been swimming.

And I'm thinking, it's cold, baby.

Look at you, it's 55 degrees, you're in a scarf. Well, let's go. How you feel to be almost to your children?

I'm so excited.

After 3 and a half days.

I'm excited. I had a great time alone. With you. Adult Town?

They could be anywhere here. So they're parked outside. Well, we gotta go get our bags.

I think it might not have been our van either.

Oh, that's true. Hey, hey, hey! You guys sneaking up on me? Yeah, you spying on us? Hey, you spying Give me a hug.

I got a hug from everybody but you.

What about me? Do I get a hug?

Did you guys have fun with Grandma and Grandpa?

Yeah, you're, you're a rowdy bunch. You're a rough and tumble bunch. How's the farm?

Good.

Still in one piece.

Move the chickens every day.

You did? Yeah, it broke into two pieces.

Is that what you said? Well, yeah, the, um, the thing did. The pig shot pop inside the chickshaw. Yeah, the pigs got in there. You heard that. Um, I went in there, some hay got in the ground and poop there, and I went and cleaned it out, and I saw that mesh has been ripped.

Really?

Ripped?

Is it pigs?

Maybe, because it was pretty far in the back.

They want to get it. The boys want to get it. Well, there's the boys that ran the farm while we were gone with no worries, except a pig got into the chicken coop.

Nice!

Thank you, guys.